Jacksonville's 'Mainz Man' a fabulous frosh on the mat

Jacksonville freshman Blaine Mainz is one of 33 area wrestlers who will take part in the NCHSAA wrestling championships that begin Thursday at the Greensboro Coliseum. Mainz is 32-3 at 106 pounds and is seeded No. 1 after winning the 3-A East Regional title Sunday. The three-day event ends with the championships late Saturday afternoon.

John Sudbrink/The Daily News

By Rick Scoppe-Sports Editor/The Daily News

Published: Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 10:00 AM.

It’s been a “pretty exciting” year for Jacksonville freshman wrestler Blaine Mainz – and impressively successful as well.

The 14-year-old is 32-3 – all his losses coming when he wrestled up from 106 to 113 – and has won the Beast of the East, the Onslow Cup and the Veterans Cup not to mention claiming the NCHSAA 3-A East Regional championship Sunday to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCHSAA state championships that begin Thursday at the Greensboro Coliseum.

So is Mainz surprised by his success?

“I don’t know,” Mainz said. “I wasn’t expecting to do as well as I have so far. I just knew I needed to put more work into it, especially after winter break.”

Mainz, who will wrestle East Rowan junior Sam Cornacchione (43-11) in his first match at states, credited his coaching staff and teammates for his success along with his father, Marcus, a Marine Corps major and NAIA national wrestling champion in 1998 at 150 pounds.

While coach Derek Abby agreed, he said that from the moment Mainz came in the Cardinals’ wrestling room he and his staff could see he had “an amazing amount of potential.”

“He’s a special wrestler,” Abbey said.

How special? Forget his record and all his tournament titles. Consider this: Abbey named Mainz, a freshman who had transferred to Jacksonville a short time earlier, as a team captain.

“He’s very committed and he’s a leader,” Abbey said. “He’s there every day. He’s setting an example every day through his actions. That’s usual for a freshman. It takes a lot. So it was an easy decision.”

What hasn’t been easy for Mainz is waiting. As he spoke to a reporter Monday, he was ready to get to the Greensboro Coliseum for states less than 24 hours after beating Swansboro’s Kasey Hill 4-2 in overtime to win the regional title at Rocky Mount High School.

“It’s pretty exciting actually,” Mainz said as he reflected on his season to date. “I guess I’m the first freshman from Jacksonville to go to states. So that’s pretty exciting. I’m just ready to kind of get it over with.”

Get it over with?

“Yeah, I’ve heard states was fun,” he said. “So kind of want to just get to it already. I know it’s going to be tough getting to the championship match and even trying to win it. But I think it would be awesome if I could get the win.”

Mainz’s road to becoming a Cardinal began with his mother, Christina, checking out local high schools before the family transferred here from Quantico, Va. And while picking a school with a good wrestling program was important, Blaine said the family was “looking for the best school all around.”

“It’s actually worked out very well,” he said.

After a bit of a rough start, that is. After winning his first two matches at 113, he dropped a 10-0 major-decision loss to Cary’s Nick Tarvin (47-7) and later that day suffered an 8-3 loss to John Bandavanis (26-17) in a tournament at Dixon on Nov. 23. Both Tarvin and Bandavanis are in the state championships, too.

“That kid handed it to me,” he said of Tarvin. “That second loss..., I don’t know, I think I was just out of it after losing so badly.”

Mainz has lost only once since – to Hill, 8-7, on Dec. 10 at 113, in a match in which both moved up a weight class. Mainz beat Hill 3-2 to win the Onslow County Cup on Jan. 11 and the duo could again meet in the state championship Saturday.

That’d be OK with Mainz, who said “all his matches” with Hill were his best of the year.

“Kasey and I are so close, each one of them was awesome,” Mainz said. “He’s one of my favorite opponents. Him beating me the first time made me actually work a little harder. I really appreciate him always being there to challenge me.”

While Abbey knew he had a special wrestler, he was under the wrestling radar in the state until Jan. 4 when he beat Jack Britt’s Bradley Wanovich, who is 49-4 and won the 4-A East Regional title this past weekend.

After that, there as no hiding for Mainz or, as Abbey said, “it was all out of the bag.”

“It was nice,” Mainz said of the win. “One of the kids was telling me about him and I was like, ‘We’ll see how it goes.’ Whenever somebody tells me about a kid, it doesn’t matter if I’m facing the No. 16 seed or the No. 1 seed, I go out there and wrestle like it’s the state championship.”

You could say he got that mentality from his father – and perhaps he got his composure, the level of which Abbey said is “unusual” for a freshman.

“That’s one of the huge things that has made him successful,” the coach added. “He’s calm on the mat.”

You could say Mainz has wrestling in his genes, and you’d be correct. He began wrestling as a 4-year-old in a wrestling program his father ran on base in Quantico, but he was too young to compete. A year later, however, he began competing, but he pointed to his time with the Highlanders wrestling club in Stafford, Va., as a key time in his young wrestling life.

“I learned a lot,” he said. “That’s where I got exponentially better my sixth and seventh and eighth grade years.”

Mainz said he liked wrestling from the start but his first love was football, which he played in his backyard with his three brothers as well as in rec league. But as he got older he realized he wasn’t going to big enough to keep playing football.

“And I realized I actually had a good future in wrestling,” he said. “So I started focusing on it.”

By his own accounts, Mainz focused early this season more on being a defensive wrestler who got more aggressive as the season went on, following a strategy he and his father employed that included turning it up a notch in the third period to take advantage of his superior stamina. Now, he describes his style “as a mixture of everything,” opting to do what it takes to win.

Abbey said Mainz is not a “flashy” wrestler.

“He’s not somebody that comes out and you’re kind of like, ‘Oh, wow!’” the coach said. “At the end of the day, that’s when you say, ‘Oh, wow,’ because he wins.”

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It’s been a “pretty exciting” year for Jacksonville freshman wrestler Blaine Mainz – and impressively successful as well.

The 14-year-old is 32-3 – all his losses coming when he wrestled up from 106 to 113 – and has won the Beast of the East, the Onslow Cup and the Veterans Cup not to mention claiming the NCHSAA 3-A East Regional championship Sunday to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCHSAA state championships that begin Thursday at the Greensboro Coliseum.

So is Mainz surprised by his success?

“I don’t know,” Mainz said. “I wasn’t expecting to do as well as I have so far. I just knew I needed to put more work into it, especially after winter break.”

Mainz, who will wrestle East Rowan junior Sam Cornacchione (43-11) in his first match at states, credited his coaching staff and teammates for his success along with his father, Marcus, a Marine Corps major and NAIA national wrestling champion in 1998 at 150 pounds.

While coach Derek Abby agreed, he said that from the moment Mainz came in the Cardinals’ wrestling room he and his staff could see he had “an amazing amount of potential.”

“He’s a special wrestler,” Abbey said.

How special? Forget his record and all his tournament titles. Consider this: Abbey named Mainz, a freshman who had transferred to Jacksonville a short time earlier, as a team captain.

“He’s very committed and he’s a leader,” Abbey said. “He’s there every day. He’s setting an example every day through his actions. That’s usual for a freshman. It takes a lot. So it was an easy decision.”

What hasn’t been easy for Mainz is waiting. As he spoke to a reporter Monday, he was ready to get to the Greensboro Coliseum for states less than 24 hours after beating Swansboro’s Kasey Hill 4-2 in overtime to win the regional title at Rocky Mount High School.

“It’s pretty exciting actually,” Mainz said as he reflected on his season to date. “I guess I’m the first freshman from Jacksonville to go to states. So that’s pretty exciting. I’m just ready to kind of get it over with.”

Get it over with?

“Yeah, I’ve heard states was fun,” he said. “So kind of want to just get to it already. I know it’s going to be tough getting to the championship match and even trying to win it. But I think it would be awesome if I could get the win.”

Mainz’s road to becoming a Cardinal began with his mother, Christina, checking out local high schools before the family transferred here from Quantico, Va. And while picking a school with a good wrestling program was important, Blaine said the family was “looking for the best school all around.”

“It’s actually worked out very well,” he said.

After a bit of a rough start, that is. After winning his first two matches at 113, he dropped a 10-0 major-decision loss to Cary’s Nick Tarvin (47-7) and later that day suffered an 8-3 loss to John Bandavanis (26-17) in a tournament at Dixon on Nov. 23. Both Tarvin and Bandavanis are in the state championships, too.

“That kid handed it to me,” he said of Tarvin. “That second loss..., I don’t know, I think I was just out of it after losing so badly.”

Mainz has lost only once since – to Hill, 8-7, on Dec. 10 at 113, in a match in which both moved up a weight class. Mainz beat Hill 3-2 to win the Onslow County Cup on Jan. 11 and the duo could again meet in the state championship Saturday.

That’d be OK with Mainz, who said “all his matches” with Hill were his best of the year.

“Kasey and I are so close, each one of them was awesome,” Mainz said. “He’s one of my favorite opponents. Him beating me the first time made me actually work a little harder. I really appreciate him always being there to challenge me.”

While Abbey knew he had a special wrestler, he was under the wrestling radar in the state until Jan. 4 when he beat Jack Britt’s Bradley Wanovich, who is 49-4 and won the 4-A East Regional title this past weekend.

After that, there as no hiding for Mainz or, as Abbey said, “it was all out of the bag.”

“It was nice,” Mainz said of the win. “One of the kids was telling me about him and I was like, ‘We’ll see how it goes.’ Whenever somebody tells me about a kid, it doesn’t matter if I’m facing the No. 16 seed or the No. 1 seed, I go out there and wrestle like it’s the state championship.”

You could say he got that mentality from his father – and perhaps he got his composure, the level of which Abbey said is “unusual” for a freshman.

“That’s one of the huge things that has made him successful,” the coach added. “He’s calm on the mat.”

You could say Mainz has wrestling in his genes, and you’d be correct. He began wrestling as a 4-year-old in a wrestling program his father ran on base in Quantico, but he was too young to compete. A year later, however, he began competing, but he pointed to his time with the Highlanders wrestling club in Stafford, Va., as a key time in his young wrestling life.

“I learned a lot,” he said. “That’s where I got exponentially better my sixth and seventh and eighth grade years.”

Mainz said he liked wrestling from the start but his first love was football, which he played in his backyard with his three brothers as well as in rec league. But as he got older he realized he wasn’t going to big enough to keep playing football.

“And I realized I actually had a good future in wrestling,” he said. “So I started focusing on it.”

By his own accounts, Mainz focused early this season more on being a defensive wrestler who got more aggressive as the season went on, following a strategy he and his father employed that included turning it up a notch in the third period to take advantage of his superior stamina. Now, he describes his style “as a mixture of everything,” opting to do what it takes to win.

Abbey said Mainz is not a “flashy” wrestler.

“He’s not somebody that comes out and you’re kind of like, ‘Oh, wow!’” the coach said. “At the end of the day, that’s when you say, ‘Oh, wow,’ because he wins.”